Emma Powell recently resigned from her position as DA spokesperson for International Relations citing a targeted campaign of intimidation.
Politicians are fond of saying: “If you expect loyalty, get a dog.” To which journalists might reply: “If you expect basic human decency from a politician, get a grip.”
Last week, the DA allowed the ANC to hound from office its own foreign policy lead.
Emma Powell resigned from the position after a protracted campaign of abuse and threats from the ANC, which mobilised the state security apparatus and pliant media against her.
Astoundingly, the DA parliamentary leadership uttered not a public word of rebuke that Powell felt so beleaguered by the campaign against her by their government of national unity partner that she threw in the towel.
The biggest challenge for the DA in its partnership with the ANC was always going to be retaining its political integrity.
It had to balance its place holder role – keeping at bay an alternative ANC coalition with the hard left – while continuing to challenge a corrupt and incompetent government.
John Steenhuisen has failed to manage this tension well. The principled opposition part of the package has been largely abandoned.
It’s been traded for a handful of ministerial positions and the giddy excitement of accompanying Cyril Ramaphosa and Paul Mashatile on foreign jaunts, where the DA leader is trotted out as a show pony to illustrate the GNU’s legitimacy.
Not everyone in the DA is happy with this. While the parliamentary caucus and, more specifically, the ministerial handful, are preoccupied with preserving access and proximity to power, many within the party’s broader membership base remain committed to the DA’s traditional liberal-democratic values.
Appeasement backfiring
Ironically, appeasement does not strengthen Steenhuisen’s hand with the ANC, but weakens it.
Every DA red line that the ANC turns into a skipping rope makes inevitable the next concession.
The campaign against Powell was orchestrated across multiple fronts, driven by intersecting resentments within the ANC, department of international relations and cooperation (Dirco).
At the heart of it was her effectiveness – despite her comparative youth and only a couple of years in the job – as a critic of South Africa’s foreign policy.
This made her intolerable to a government that is increasingly allergic to scrutiny.
First came ANC fury over Powell’s participation, alongside then deputy minister of trade and industry Andrew Whitfield, in a DA delegation to Washington in March.
Then came the backlash from the powerful pro-Hamas clique in Dirco to a fact-finding visit to Israel by opposition MPs.
Perhaps most damaging to Steenhuisen’s tjommie relationship with President Cyril Ramaphosa – now performing on the international circuit as the Smooth Cyril and Jovial John show – is her exposure of our president as a fantasist and flat-out liar about Mcebisi Jonas.
Powell released an explosive statement asserting that the US had denied Jonas a diplomatic visa in May, had formally rejected his credentials as interlocutor and that the Presidency had repeatedly been told this.
Now the heavy artillery was brought to bear. A leaked intelligence report originating from the National Security Council claimed that Powell was under investigation for treason for “spreading misinformation” during her US trip.
Again, the DA remained tjoepstil. In the face of the scale of ANC’s disenchantment with Powell, it’s not beyond imagining Ramaphosa laying down his own red line with Steenhuisen: get rid of that troublesome spokesperson, or else.
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